Former Australian Special Ops military sniper Damien Mander who trained Zimbabwe’s “Brave Ones” says women will change the face of conservation forever.

AUTHOR
Amanda Coetzee

Abused and disadvantaged women have become Zimbabwe’s weapon against poachers who kill elephants and rhinos for their tusks and horns, according to CBS News.

The Akashinga squad, Zimbabwe’s first all-female anti-poaching unit, have earned a reputation as top sharpshooters. Akashinga means “Brave Ones” and in the past year the team has arrested more than 80 armed poachers, many of whom pose as much of a threat to human life as they do to wildlife. According to Save the Rhino at least a thousand rangers have died in the line of duty in a decade, with many more unreported casualties.

Recruited by former Australian Special Ops military sniper Damien Mander, many of the women come from backgrounds where extreme poverty and domestic violence are rife.

Mander initially had misgivings about leading an all-female squad of soldiers.

“I have built a career across three continents by bringing hardened men to the point of breaking and then rebuilding them into what we need on the front lines, and women never factored into the equation. We not only prided ourselves on being all-male units in the military but we ridiculed units that transitioned into accepting females.

“The whole time it was just us fighting against our egos,” he said. “It’s a male mindset, you’re looking for a fight. Women actually want to solve a problem and have a conversation. It’s a big difference.”

Mander started training thirty-six women modelled on his special-forces training. “We pushed them hard, much harder than any training we do with men. Only three dropped out. I couldn’t believe it.”

Vimbai Kumire is a 32-year-old single mother whose husband ran off with a younger woman while she was pregnant with her second child. She says: “This job is not meant just for men, but for everyone who is fit and strong.”